A post by Maynard
Forgive the California focus, but Tammy’s a CaliGal, and Maynard is also a local, and our border puts us on the front line of this particular conflict.
California’s Senator Boxer has a solid left-wing reputation, but Diane Feinstein sometimes sides with the moderates. Not so on immigration, where she lectured the Senate like an elderly schoolmarm on the definition of “amnesty”, spinning furiously to sell the unsupportable claim that this wasn’t an amnesty bill. Now that it’s gone, the International Herald Tribune is reporting her gripes:
“I’ve listened to talk show hosts drumming up the opposition by using this word ‘amnesty’ over and over and over again,” she said. In her 15 years in the Senate, Feinstein said, “I’ve never received more hate or more racist phone calls and threats.”
She’s basically calling us a collection of liars and dupes and thugs and hatemongers and racists. These are the magic bullets that label an opponent too despicable to respond to. Those who disagree aren’t simply wrong; they’re bad. Feinstein won’t acknowledge the possibility that our concerns our legitimate, or that it’s fair to call a bill an “amnesty” when it effectively hands a lawbreaker possession of the thing he illegally appropriated.
The irony is obvious enough. The pro-amnesty people lie to our faces, and the pro-amnesty rallies turn violent, and pro-amnesty Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is honored by the National Council of La Raza (“La Raza” is Spanish for “The Race”) and promises, “We’re going to tell the bigots [that is, the anti-amnesty advocates] to shut up”. So which side attracts the liars and racists and thugs?
Life lesson number 1: Ignore the rhetoric. Examine the deeds.
Well, it just so happens I’m married to a brown-skinned immigrant (our 34th wedding anniversary is today). When it comes to angry words about this grand swindle you just tried to ram down our throats, Senator, you should hear him and other members of his family. They came here legally, some waiting several years.
I actually sent Dianne Feinstein a pretty polite email, in which point by point I addressed my concerns with the amnesty bill that was going through the Senate. She responded with a form letter. I didn’t send her any hate, but she probably deserves some if she can’t have her staff actually address the content of the emails that are sent to her.
Of course, maybe she means hate the same way Schwarzenegger(sp?) meant hate when a Californian questioned his immigration policy, which defined hate as not agreeing. Wonder if they’ve worked that definition into Webster’s yet.
I just saw the movie “Maxed Out” about American credit card debt. It stunned me to see that Bush’s biggest campaign donor was the second largest credit company in the country. In fact, it looks like the majority of the Senators are bought and paid for by these companies.
Point: The movie shows how these companies have a great thirst for more and more customers…preferably the poor who, thanks to the new bankruptcy law Bush signed (which was written by these companies) can no longer escape into bankrupcy.
I think the amnesty for illegals is simply this: more money for the credit companies…the same companies who own our Senate and President. Follow the money. Why else would these sell-outs be so angry at the failure of cloture? No big bonuses from their masters.
Don’t tell me these senators are unaware of this. Why the Senate Immigration Bill Failed
It’s deliberate demagoguery to say what Feinstein, Graham and others, including our president, are saying. When the government is more concerned with non-citizens than citizens it is an arrogant, corrupt, decadent government. Those egotists praising each other and themselves think they are courageous. If they hold such contempt for the people they represent, the morally appropriate thing to do is resign.
The bill is flat out amnesty, period. It has to be, because our Constitution in Article 1, Section 8 requires that Congress “establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” Since we presently don’t naturalize felons, to get illegal aliens eligible for citizenship, their record has to be cleared by making them non-felons. Amnesty. Q.E.D. If Boxer Doesn’t like it, she can try to amend the Constitution.
You know it’s some convoluted political reasoning when Senator Barbara Boxer who is usually left of Nancy Pelosi on her positions, votes NO and helps to effectively “kill” this AMNESTY turkey…someone’s got some splanin’ to do…it must be some obscure Union position that kept Boxer from voting No for cloture to place her in the No Amnesty camp. Boxer hasn’t suddenly become a conservative.